10,001th Rescued Sea Lion Released Back Into the Pacific | Care2 Causes

This past Thursday, the Marine Mammal Center released a rescued sea lion nicknamed Milestone and another, Zodiac Girl, back into the Pacific Ocean near Point Reyes. According to SFGate , the two sea lions were the 10,000th and 10,001th the nonprofit center has rescued and nursed back to health over the past 36 years. Here’s a video of Milestone and Zodiac Girl being released: The Sacramento Bee says that only about half of the more than 17,000 marine mammals — including entangled whales — who are taken in by the Center are released. Many of the animals have contributed samples that are helping the Center conduct research with one such area being the exposure of sea lions to carcinogens. Pollutants like DDT and PCBs are banned in the US but still found in the sea lion’s blubber. Chemicals, antibiotics and “other substances of human origin” have also been found in the mammal...